I’m very bullish on gold and I’m very bullish on gold mining shares. That’s because I think that the world will lose faith in the Ph.D. standard in monetary management. Gold is by no means the best investment. Gold is money and money is sterile, as Aristotle would remind us. It does not pay dividends or earn income. So keep in mind that gold is not a conventional investment. That’s why I don’t want to suggest that it is the one and only thing that people should have their money in. But to me, gold is a very timely way to invest in monetary disorder.

If you want my own current thoughts on gold, rendered down to one paragraph, I would say "see above."

If you want a bit more than one paragraph, here you go …

Has Gold Production Peaked?

Back in January, and again in August, the gold supply received renewed attention. That’s around the time some analysts were saying that gold production peaked in 2015.

The "peak gold" discussion may be why gold saw a nice run higher in bullion prices during the first half of the year.

Begged for in that production question is an answer to this one: Is the price of gold going to surge higher?

My answer: Maybe.

New spending is down because producers entered firmly into cost-cutting mode with gold’s decline to $1,060 per ounce more than a year ago.

In recent years, physical demand — particularly in Asia — has been softer than many gold speculators and commentators expected.

For all intents and purposes, I’m not sure the Fed’s interest-rate policy can be normalized. But that won’t stop them from following the market’s lead if investors take the initiative a drive up interest rates because they see inflation gauges reading hotter-than-usual.

The key there is whether inflation outpaces the rise in interest rates. If it does, good for gold. If it does not, bad for gold.